From UP bureaucrats to leaders, poll fatigue spares none

In the past one month, private physicians and psychologists have been getting a steady stream of patients complaining of insomnia, irritability, fatigue, brain fog and depression.

When initial check-up of most of these patients were found to be normal, some of them were referred to psychiatrists and after three weeks of tests and counselling sessions, the results left the doctors astounded.

The phenomenon of “poll fatigue”, not seen earlier in Uttar Pradesh, has started merging.

“The patients were politicians, bureaucrats and even journalists and after an intensive research on their backgrounds, we found that all of them were directly or indirectly involved with elections,” a senior faculty member of the psychiatric department in King George’s Medical University said.

“The phenomenon of poll fatigue has been found in the west but in UP, this is the first time we are seeing it.”

Uttar Pradesh has been witnessing elections alternating between Lok Sabha and Assembly polls every two years since 1999 and after 2007, the election mode has not been switched off.

“One election ends and the preparations for the next one begins. There is no respite for political workers and even bureaucrats who are made to push the envelope because their political leaders want projects to be completed in time for the next polls,” the psychiatrist said. The person declined to be named citing privacy concerns since some of the patients are politicians.

“With this (election) activity, it is natural that journalists also get sucked into the vortex and suffer the same syndrome.”

One VIP patient, a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said the overdose of “election talk” was “getting on my nerves”.

“It has been a month since we came to power and we are not even being given time to relax and enjoy the new status. We have been handed down a programme for 2019 and are expected to start working right away,” the politician said.

“We have been working continuously since 2007, then 2009, 2012, 2014, 2017 and now 2019. I have begun dreading party meetings because of this election talk,” he said.

The phenomenon has become more pronounced after the recent Assembly elections because municipal elections are due in July and the BJP is determined to continue its winning streak while the opposition parties are trying hard to regain lost ground.

The leader has been advised by doctors to take a break of at least two months, if needed on medical grounds, and move to a place where he can relax.

A middle-rung bureaucrat, also under treatment, told his doctor that he cannot even take leave because of the new work culture initiated by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Journalists, who cover political activities, are also affected by poll fatigue. “We cannot get off the election horse. For the past one decade, there is nothing else to report except poll business. Besides, how innovative can you get while writing about the same thing over and over again? At times, I feel like calling it quits but the issue is about bread and butter,” a senior journalist working for a national Hindi daily said.

Doctors are treating the problem at a more physical level than at a psychological level.